I gave blood yesterday.. well, I tried to..

I always try to give blood when they’re in town, the free biscuits and orange juice are great, but the bit I hate, the bit I REALLY hate..

..is the split second when they jam the needle into my vein.. and then whilst the blood is being taken, if I feel the needle move inside me.. that sucks too.

So yesterday, went to give blood, the nurse did the usual stuff, tightened the tourniquet round the top of my arm, tapped my vein to make it appear, and jammed the needle in..

“oops, missed it”

“gah and again”

“where’s it gone..”

“will get it this time..”

FOUR attempts at jabbing the needle into me before she hit the vein!  I always look away at that point, and had my eyes closed, but must have been pulling quite some face cos when I opened my eyes, everyone in the queue was staring at me 😀

Halfway through giving the blood, it was coming out too slowly, so she started jiggling the needle in my arm and twisting it around.. gah!

In the end we had to stop, my blood stopped coming out, with the bag just under the minimum level.

There are two theories for this:

The first is that as a ninJA, my body healed itself faster than expected, and formed a blood clot in the needle.

The second is that, the human body only holds between 8 and 10 pints of blood .. this was my 9th time giving blood.. so maybe I’ve just got none left!

Not sure which theory I prefer, but I hear they’re going to add “Are you a ninJA” to the forms you have to fill in before you give, just so next time they’re prepared